My Vacation in Pictures

Even as our time of vacation draws to a close, we find ourselves thankful for the time of rest and relaxation.  We had so much fun spending time with friends and family.  It felt so good to be at home and to see all of our loved ones at the church.  Scattered through this post is a pictorial representation of the people we were able to see. 

The first picture you see on the left is a picture of my brother, Jarod Delhotal.  He is a combat veteran who served for a year in the Iraq war a couple of years ago.  He received a purple heart for wounds received in combat and a medal of commendation for actions performed on the day he received his wound.  I do not know the particular commendation that he has and I keep forgetting to ask him when he is around.  I look up to him a lot and I sort of envision myself as following in his footsteps in a small way.

Jarod came out on Friday night and spent most of the weekend with us. 

The next picture that you see on the right is of Amy Hicks.  I took this picture at the church.  She and her husband, Todd, have a whole bunch of boys, and now they finally have a girl.  So this poor little girl in my home church has to grow up with a whole bunch of big brothers.  That poor thing.  Todd and his wife are always a huge blessing to me.

My front passenger tire on my car has been rubbing bald due, we think, to a messed up bearing hub.  Todd works at the Chrysler dealership a few miles from my house, and he always performs the vehicle maintenance on my car for me.  Later today, in fact, he is going to replace the hub for me.  He always goes so far out of his way to help me and be a blessing to my wife and I when we are home!  Thanks Todd and Amy!

This next picture is an instant classic.  In the chair my Uncle Jim Delhotal, who you will sometimes hear me refer to as my dad, is reading a story book to his grandchildren, Abby and Nehemiah. 

Jim is probably one of the best Christians that I know.  I was joking with him the other day about him getting saved.  I said something like this, "Aren't you glad that you got saved?  Because, if you didn't get saved you wouldn't have had the heart to take me in when I was a kid and then you would never have known what a blessing it would be to have me live out here.  Think of all that blessing you would have missed out on!"

When I was a kid, I was anything but a blessing.  I was a living terror.  Yet, somewhere in his oversized heart he found it in him to take me in and put up with me and help me.  If he didn't take me in when I was thirteen years old back in May of 1998, I would most definitely be very far from God.  There was nothing in my life that would have ever drawn me to God...except for this man and his wife.  Thanks Jim and Janelle!

The picture here on the right is of my niece, Abigail Delhotal.  I took this picture when we were driving to church.  It's the same girl that you saw sitting a listening to the story on the previous picture.  She is a wild child.  She has two younger brothers and she thinks that she is tough stuff.  Yeah right.

This next picture is a picture of my brother, Chad, and his wife, Lee Anne.  They are working to start and grow a church in Princeton, IL.  On Saturday, I went down therewith him and we knocked on some doors and handed out some flyers inviting people to be a part of this new Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.  He was also the assistant Pastor at the First Baptist Church in Amboy, IL when I was a teenager.  This is the church that I grew up in.  He was also the youth leader, which meant that I had to listen to my brother at church.  What a bummer.  Just kidding. 

Jim, Chad, and I went out on Saturday night to the river to ride the wave runners.  It was actually a lot of fun because there were some other boats out and about creating some waves to bounce off.  As we were riding the wave runners back to the dock to load them back onto the trailer, I cranked to the side and gunned the one that I was driving.  This created a solid wall of water that went flying onto Chad.  As soon as I had done it, I stopped, looked back at him, and waved.  He was completely soaked.  It was so funny.  We were both already completely soaked prior to this, but it was still so funny to see. 

 This picture on the right is of my nephew, Nehemiah.  I always spend a lot of time around my nieces and nephews when I am home.  They do, therefore, take up a lot of space on my camera.  He is a cute kid.  Of course, when my wife and I have kids, they will be cuter, but he is cute, too.

This is one of my parents dogs named Tirzah.  Tirzah is the name of a girl in the Old Testament.  Her full name is Tirzah Joy.  You can actually see her in the photo above if you look at the lower right hand corner. 

 As a final note, in a few minutes, I will be calling my liaison to find out about the job in Washington D.C.  I have been praying a lot about this and I appreciate all of the prayer that everyone else has offered up on my behalf.  I will post an update later today just to let you know what he said.  Unless you've been in the military, it is probably difficult to understand the feeling of not knowing where you are going until just days before you have to be there.  On top of that is the fact that what he tells me will determine the next four years of my life.  God is in control and I praise Him for that.  Whatever he chooses is the best choice for me.  Stay tuned and keep praying.

Thanks,

Nicholas and Diane Cardot